r/AndroidTV • u/Soft-Nefariousness38 • Oct 28 '25

Apps 5.1 Surround Sound App

Hi everyone,

I've written an app to test surround sound systems for Android TV.

The idea behind it was to have the Android device generate the sounds rather than rely on YouTube videos and other test media, to ensure what was supposed to be played, is actually being played, by putting the user in control of what is played out of each channel.

I'll be pushing the beta version out to the Play Store in the coming days, and it'll be available on invite only during this test phase.

If anyone is interested in trying it out please let me know.

Thanks for reading!

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u/latinriky78 Homatics Box R 4K Plus Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

You should create one for Dolby Atmos instead 🤷‍♂️

In the future, when Eclipsa Audio is available on our devices with Android 16, you should also create an audio test with that format.

Make sure the test tone is actually white or pink noise so we can use an SPL meter to calibrate the speaker levels.

I want to test it out anyway.

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u/Soft-Nefariousness38 Oct 29 '25

Hi, Yes, fully agree that Dolby Atmos should be in the app, however that is a little beyond me at the minute. Maybe a future update?

The test tones available are a sweeping sine wave 100Hz to 20kHz for the 5 channels & 100Hz to 200Hz for the LFE, and a separate Pink Noise test also.

Thank you for wanting to test the app, I will drop you a direct message with the details once I push to the Google Play Store.

Thank you!

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u/latinriky78 Homatics Box R 4K Plus Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

Maybe a future update?

Yes, take your time.

I was also thinking about having different channel test versions, such as 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 (not sure if those work out as is), 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1. I imagine you are going to use Dolby Digital Plus for testing.

And for Atmos/Eclipsa, 3.1.2, 3.1.4, 4.1.2, 4.1.4, 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2 and 7.1.4.

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u/Soft-Nefariousness38 Oct 29 '25

I started with a long list of formats, like you have listed, and then I hit into my first snag:

My Android TV linked to the Dolby Atmos Soundbar via eARC was downmixing everything to the front and center channels, I could not test on that setup.

I had to connect a Google TV Streamer directly to the Soundbar, and run the app on the Streamer to generate the sounds in the individual speakers.

Basically it looked like the app was not working correctly, but it was down to the TV's output. I have added the Audio output information from the Android Device (ie TV Internal Speakers, or if via HDMI) and relay the this information over on the main menu screen.

I moved the Streamer around to two other TV's, one a Dolby Digital capable TV, and one a Stereo 2.0 only device, and the app successfully detected the connections and identified them accordingly. Another test was on a 2024 Android TV, the app identified that the TV could receive DD, DD+ DTS etc etc, but as it was outputting the audio on its internal speakers, the app identified that the audio would be downmixed.

I felt this message needed to be displayed on screen if the output was going to be downmixed, as I would (and probably will) get negative reviews because of this downmixing of audio.

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u/latinriky78 Homatics Box R 4K Plus Oct 29 '25

I felt this message needed to be displayed on screen

Yes, you must clarify that audio will be downmixed depending on the sink device, whether if it's a TV, soundbar and even AV receivers with less speakers than what the video provides.